Advocates and Faith Leaders to City: We need housing for homeless pregnant women

SAN FRANCISCO, Thursday, May 31, 2018 – A broad coalition of San Francisco homelessness advocates and faith leaders this week sent letters to Mayor Mark Farrell and the city’s mayoral candidates asking them to commit to an administrative policy change that will allow pregnant homeless women to qualify for family housing in the critical first trimester of their pregnancy.

San Francisco homeless pregnant women must currently use regular single adult congregate shelters until their third trimester when they then qualify for family shelter, unless they are deemed medically at risk, under San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (DPSH) policy. Few qualify, according to Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director, Jennifer Friedenbach.

In the first 4½ months of this year, 229 homeless pregnant women registered with the Homeless Prenatal Program in San Francisco, according to Executive Director and Founder, Martha Ryan. The Gabriel Project, a Roman Catholic outreach to pregnant women, almost solely serves homeless women in San Francisco, the volunteers in this Catholic parish ministry say.

Each of those unborn children is at risk, and their mothers are vulnerable to further health complications, if they don’t get care in the first trimester.

All homeless pregnant mothers are “high risk” for miscarriage, preterm birth, or other health issues while their children are at risk for developmental delays or other physical problems if they don’t get good care early in pregnancy, according the 2017 report, “Housing, Pregnancy & Preterm Birth in San Francisco: A community-academic partnership for research, policy and practice,” conducted under the auspices of San Francisco State University and with the UCSF Preterm Birth Initiative, Benioff Community Innovators, and other partners.

Below are the names of the 38 faith leaders and advocates who signed the letters sent this week to Mayor Mark Farrell, Supervisors London Breed and Jane Kim, former state Sen. Mark Leno, and Angela Alioto, formally requesting the city change how it classifies pregnant women so they can qualify for family shelter in their first trimester.